A conversation with Diego Bernal

Diego Bernal shakes hands at his runoff victory party in June at Los Barrios Mexican Restaurant. JENNIFER WHITNEY / SPECIAL TO THE EXPRESS-NEWS

A lot has happened since District 1 City Councilman Diego Bernal took office in June. Council approved a $2.2 billion budget. Talk of a downtown grocery store heated up, then cooled down. And transportation plans and studies have whizzed by from all direction.

And then there’s the matter of the name change from Durango to Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard, a vote Bernal was not around for, but an issue he may still have to deal with.

Bernal covered these topics in an interview two weeks ago.

Note: At the time of this interview, Mayor Julián Castro had not yet unveiled his own street car plan for downtown. So, discussed in this recording was VIA’s long-range plan which called for an east-west line first, then eventually a north-south.